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Indonesian Airforce members carry a bag containing debris, believed to be from AirAsia QZ8501, recovered from the sea and transported by helicopter to the airport in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.Photo: Reuters

The joint press release, however, stated that the airline was "operating the flight four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays".

An airline needs to obtain approval for its flight schedules "from the respective civil aviation authorities at each end of its flight routing separately", before launching a service between two points.

It said:

"On the Singapore end, Indonesia AirAsia had applied to operate a daily flight between Surabaya and Singapore for the Northern Winter Season from Oct 26, 2014 to March 28, 2015, arriving at Changi Airport at 8.30am and departing for Surabaya at 2.10pm.

"These daily flights were approved..."

It added: "Airlines may adjust their flight frequencies in the course of a season in response to market demand or operational requirements."

The transport ministry on Friday temporarily suspended Indonesia AirAsia’s Surabaya-Singapore flights because it had apparently operated the service beyond the scope of its licence, which permitted flights on four days of the week but not Sundays, when the crash occurred.

"We will also investigate the party that gave permission to AirAsia to fly on that day," Mr Muratmodjo added.

Indonesia AirAsia CEO Sunu Widyatmoko told the company would cooperate with the investigation into the Surabaya-Singapore route, but declined to answer further questions.

Source: Reuters

UPDATE (1.30PM): Chief of Navy tweets about the search area for AirAsia Flight 8501.

UPDATE (11.35AM) Recovery teams have found two big parts of AirAsia Flight 8501, Indonesia’s top search official said.

The two objects are about 30m under water and located near an oil slick spotted Friday, said Basarnas chief Bambang Sulistyo

The larger of the objects was around 10m by five metres.

“With the discovery of an oil spill and two big parts of the aircraft, I can assure you these are the parts of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for,” Soelistyo told reporters in the capital Jakarta.

He said:

“As I speak, we are lowering an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) underwater to get an actual picture of the objects detected on the sea floor.

All are at the depth of 30 metres.”

A strong current, however, was making it difficult to operate the ROV.

Rough weather in recent days has hampered the search for bodies and the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which disappeared from radar and crashed into the sea during a storm.

A Republic of Singapore Navy ship RSS Persistence, seen from an Indonesian Navy plane, takes part in the search for wreckage and the remains of passengers onboard the AirAsia QZ8501 flight, in the Karimata Strait south of Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan. Photo: Reuters

Malaysian newspaper The Star quoted him saying that three vessels sent out to a sea area where the oil slick was spotted located the "two objects...that are close to each other".

So far 30 bodies have been recovered in the search, which had been narrowed Friday to an area of 1,575 square nautical miles – a tenth of the size of Thursday’s search – with 29 ships and 17 aircraft engaged in the operation.

Finding the plane’s black boxes is crucial to determining the cause of the crash. - AFP